


Iron Sickies

by rebelmeg



Series: Rebelmeg's Tony Stark Bingo Fills 2019 [23]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Awesome Pepper Potts, Domestic Fluff, Endgame fixit, F/M, Iron Family, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 18:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21498364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelmeg/pseuds/rebelmeg
Summary: Pepper takes over while her Iron Man and Iron Baby are down with a cold.  And Rhodey.  And also Happy.
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Morgan Stark, Pepper Potts & James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Rebelmeg's Tony Stark Bingo Fills 2019 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1448665
Comments: 25
Kudos: 94
Collections: Tony Stark Flash Bingo





	Iron Sickies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [remreader](https://archiveofourown.org/users/remreader/gifts).

> This is for my internet bestie, Rem! Based on the prompt "Here, take my blanket." AND, as luck would have it, it ALSO fits my TSB Flash square "Red" on card 001!

Pepper heard it before she saw it, the quiet but telltale congested sniffle that managed to communicate entire worlds of misery.

Tony had caught Morgan’s cold, then.

Putting the finishing touches on the mugs of coffee and hot chocolate she’d been pouring, Pepper headed back upstairs, getting close enough to hear Morgan’s voice mingling with Tony’s.

“Pretty sure this is your fault, little miss." He was saying, his voice lightly accusing. "You’re the one that got all snotty and gross first.”

“I tried not to share,” Morgan countered, sounding just as stuffed up as she had yesterday. “Mommy made sure I washed my hands a lot.”

“I think I missed out on that memo, I probably touched one of your diseased little fingers and caught it that way.”

“I’m not diseased!”

Chuckling, Pepper went into the master bedroom and observed the two of them, cuddled up together in the bed, matching red noses and exhausted expressions on their faces.

“How are my sickies doing?” She asked, handing off a coffee to Tony and the hot chocolate to Morgan.

“Gross.” Morgan replied pertly, her seven-year-old precociousness causing both of her parents to laugh.

“Sounds like it’ll be a camp out on the couch kind of day for you two, huh?” Pepper sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over to kiss both feverish foreheads and handily checking their temperatures as she did so. No real point trying to escape the germs now, she and Tony had been up half the night sucking face anyway.

“I shouldn’t,” Tony sighed, wrapping both hands around his warm mug. “Left a bit of a project in the garage.”

“It’ll keep.” Pepper assured him as she patted his knee, and half an hour later she had both of them redressed in clean pajamas and wrapped up in blankets on the couch. There was a box of tissues in easy reach for their red, swollen noses, and medicine had been distributed accordingly.

“Mommy, can we watch Snow White?” Morgan asked, her pretty brown eyes so like her father’s all watery and red.

“Of course, honey. You good with that, other honey?”

Tony nodded, tugging his blanket up to his chin. “You should stay too, Pep. Make sure we be good.”

“It’s awfully tempting, but someone is gonna have to make breakfast." She briefly considered which breakfast foods were in her range of cooking capability. "Instant oatmeal okay for everyone?”

* * *

Most of the morning passed calmly, other than a few panicked moments when Pepper couldn’t find the extra package of tissues she could have sworn they had in the storage room. The sickies on the couch dozed off and on as the movies played, and Pepper was even able to read a few chapters of her book as she kept them company.

Tony’s movie selection (Iron Giant) had just finished when a knock at the door brought all their heads around. Pepper recognized the silhouette on the other side of the door, and smiled as she opened it.

“Hey, Rhodey, come on— Ohhhh.”

Rhodey nodded miserably, looking terrible. “Tony mentioned Morgan had a cold, and since we shared teacups at the teddy bear’s picnic last week, I figured that was where the fatal germ exchange happened.”

“Yeah, probably." Pepper smiled sympathetically. "I have some darling pictures of that, by the way, War Machine wearing a flowery hat and apron is definitely a memory to cherish."

Chuckling weakly, Rhodey followed Pepper inside, catching the attention of the other two sickies in the living room.

“Oh, no, not you too!” Tony exclaimed, taking in Rhodey’s watery eyes and swollen nose.

“Yep,” He replied, falling into the open spot on the couch with a thump. “She shared it with me too.”

Peering over the pillow she was lying on in her daddy’s lap, Morgan wailed apologetically, “I’m sorry Uncle Rhodey!”

Rhodey smiled and reached over to ruffle her hair. “No worries, little bean. I’ll be fine.”

Tony worked one of the blankets from around his shoulders and clumsily passed it over. “Here, take my blanket. Pepper just ran it through the dryer so it’s nice and warm.”

Under normal, healthy circumstances, Rhodey would have declined, but… well, he was cold and miserable, so he just snuggled into the worn soft and faded-with-use quilt.

Morgan had struggled up enough to grab onto the box of tissues and passed it over, just in time for Rhodey to snatch one and sneeze into it. 

“Diseased tissues go in the red garbage can.” She likewise scooted said bio-hazard receptacle closer to Rhodey, nodding approvingly when he tossed his used tissue into it.

“Right, then.” Pepper murmured to herself at the edge of the room with her hands on her hips, regarding the three sickies collected on the couch that were coughing, sneezing, and sniffling up a storm. “Time to call in reinforcements.”

* * *

Dum-E and U had been absolutely ecstatic when Pepper went out to the garage and told them they’d be taking a field trip to the house. They beeped excitedly as they followed her all the way across the lawn and around to the deck in the back so they could avoid the stairs, rolling to and fro on their wheels as they waited for Pepper to open the sliding door. FRIDAY came too, uploading herself to Pepper’s phone and setting to work immediately organizing a grocery delivery.

Tony nearly fell off the couch in surprise when the bots first came into the house. “Dum-E?! U?! How did you get in here? How did you get out of the garage?!”

Pepper smiled as she came in behind them. “I let them out. Figured I could use an extra pair of hands.”

Morgan had sat up with a grin and was now petting both bots and cooing at them happily as they crowded around her, their favoritism obvious. “This is a good idea, Mommy, they’re good helper bots!”

“That’s what I’m hoping. Dum-E, you’re in charge of helping keep this room clean, and fetching things when you’re asked. U, come with me, you’re gonna be my runner while I get all the meds dosed out."

Dum-E waggled his claw happily and immediately started trundling around the room, picking up a few tissues that had missed the garbage can. U rolled after Pepper obediently, her steady claw at the ready as FRIDAY gave Pepper an estimate for when the groceries would be delivered.

“You know, when I first thought up Dum-E at MIT, and JARVIS and FRIDAY later, I never figured this would be the kind of purpose my advanced helper robot and groundbreaking AI would be living up to.” Tony commented, patting Dum-E absently as the bot passed, clearing a few empty juice bottles off the side tables.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rhodey muttered as U made her way back into the room with bottles of water. “Dum-E’s been babysitting you since you first brought him into our dorm.”

Tony threw a tissue at him (which Dum-E was more than happy to clean up).

* * *

Despite lacking most cooking skills, Pepper gave herself the challenge of making chicken noodle soup for lunch, and with U’s help she followed a recipe she found online studiously. And it seemed to be going very well, since there was a noticeable lack of any swearing to be heard, and every so often one of the sickies could catch a whiff of something tasty. Their appetites weren’t very big, but the three of them lined up on the couch were still looking forward to lunchtime.

“You know, the only one we’re missing from the original Iron Squad is Happy.” Tony said as he fired his most recent tissue into the red garbage can. He missed, but Dum-E was delighted to fetch it and dispose of it, beeping cheerfully.

“Don’t curse the poor guy like that, you butthead.” Rhodey chastened, and Morgan, curled up between the two of them, gave a congested giggle.

“Incoming!” Pepper called from the kitchen, and a minute later U came slowly rolling into view, a tray very carefully balanced in her claw with three steaming mugs on top of it.

“Hey, check you out,” Tony reached out and patted the bot’s strut. “You’re steady as a rock, amazing. This is why you get to handle the camera, you know.”

Mugs of chicken noodle soup were passed around, as well as spoons, stacks of crackers, and straws. The three were just tucking into their lunch when another knock sounded at the door.

Pepper answered it, and her exclamation of dismay brought the other’s heads around. “Oh no, Happy!”

Happy nodded miserably. “It’s my own fault. We shared the extra cheeseburger on our date last week.”

Looking like she was trying not to smile, Pepper waved her hand at the collection of sickies already in her living room. “Come on in, we just started lunch.”

“No, you don’t gotta feed me,” Happy protested even as Pepper steered him into the recliner and sat him down, setting a blanket on his lap. Morgan got up and went over to give him a hug of apology, but Happy just smiled bashfully and hugged her back, clearly willing to eat as many tainted cheeseburgers as was necessary to keep the little girl happy.

“I made a huge pot of soup, it’s fine,” Pepper reassured him, and a minute later there was a freshly opened box of tissues next to him and a mug of soup in his hands.

“Thanks, Pepper,” He said, sheepish but grateful as he looked up at her.

Tony, Morgan, and Rhodey offered up their own thanks as well, and by the time the soup was gone, it was medicine time again. 

“They may or may not make you drowsy,” Pepper informed them as she punched little pills out of a blister packet and measured out Morgan’s grape-flavored medicine. “So maybe we should have you all spread out a little.”

Happy was perfectly content in the recliner, Rhodey relocated to the loveseat, and Tony sprawled out on the couch with Morgan tucked into his side. Once they were all settled, with tissues and orange juice within reach, and another movie had been started, Pepper sat down with Tony’s head in her lap. She was glad she’d had the foresight to get a pillow for him to lay on, because half an hour into Wall-E, all four of the sickies were sound asleep.

“You wanna keep watching, you two?” Pepper murmured at the bots, reaching out to stroke Dum-E’s strut as he watched the TV avidly, his claw bouncing up and down in affirmation. The big metal babies loved this movie, or any movie with robots, really. She was pretty sure U harbored a secret crush for R2D2.

Squirming around to get a little more comfortable, Pepper ran her hand through Tony’s hair and smiled, letting herself fall into a doze with her family around her.

* * *

“You warm enough?” Tony asked as he tucked the dryer-warm blanket around his wife’s shoulders, his calloused palm lingering on her face to check her temperature.

Pepper smiled weakly, feeling absolutely horrid, but appreciating his efforts all the same. “I’m good, thank you. Did I hear Rhodey and Happy come in?”

“You did, and they’re convinced that between the two of them they can whip up some chicken noodle soup. I don’t know whether to be amused or terrified.”

“They better not destroy my kitchen,” Pepper sighed as she snuggled deeper into the couch. 

“Mommy, here’s some juice, and Uncle Rhodey wants to know if we have any celery.”

Groaning a little bit (but laughing a little bit too), Pepper took the juice from Morgan. “My poor kitchen.”

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Tony smoothed her hair away from her face. “I’ll make sure the kitchen survives. Morguna, you gonna keep an eye on Mommy while I keep an eye on Uncle Happy and Uncle Rhodey? I think I’ll call Mama Rhodes, too, at least she knows what she’s doing and can coach us through this.” 

Morgan nodded and patted her mom’s knee. “Yep. Auntie Nebula is coming too. Uncle Rhodey promised to teach her how to cook.”

Pepper wanted to moan in despair at the thought of _Tony_ being the supervisor of a spontaneous cooking lesson led by an entire household of mediocre-at-best cooks, but a sneeze distracted her. By the time Morgan had finished supervising the proper application of tissues to Pepper's very red, swollen, and sore nose, and her favorite movie was up on the TV (Sleepless in Seattle), Mrs. Stark had surrendered to her fate.

Her sweet, strange little family was determined to take care of her just as she’d taken care of them, so she might as well just smile and let them get on with it.

She loved them all so very much. Germs and all.


End file.
